Lansdale shooting suspect arraigned

LANSDALE — The Philadelphia man facing myriad charges in connection with a September, 2011 shooting incident in the borough was arraigned last week by District Judge Harold Borek.

John Sambath, whom authorities charge with firing a flurry of bullets into a residence in the 900 block of Wedgewood Drive, striking one person, has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Jan. 3 at 11 a.m. before Borek, according to information posted on Pennsylvania’s Unified Judicial Web portal.

Sambath — of the 1600 block of South 15th Street in Philadelphia — faces charges of criminal homicide and discharge of a firearm into an occupied structure in addition to burglary, criminal trespass, possession of a firearm without a license, as well as two counts of aggravated assault, eight counts of simple assault and six counts of reckless endangerment, according to information posted on the same website.

The defendant has been remanded at Montgomery County prison after failing to post his a bail, according to the website.

Borek set that amount during Wednesday’s arraignment at $500,000 cash, according to an employee in the judge’s office.

A phone message left Monday morning for Alex Kromdyk, a sergeant with the Lansdale Police Department, was not immediately returned.

Just after midnight on Sept. 4, 2011, authorities responded to reports of a shooting near a residence in the 900 block of Wedgewood Drive, according to the court affidavit filed at Borek’s court.

It states that police discovered an 18-year-old man with a gunshot wound in his torso.

Last year, in a news release, the department stated that a Hatfield man was taken to a local hospital.

A witness told authorities a group of people she was associated with “had words and some tension” with another group prior to the shooting, according to the court document.

It states that the witness told police the other group “was trying to cause problems.”

The altercation — which began outside — continued inside the home, according to court records.

They state that Sambath brandished a handgun inside the home which caused people to run outside for safety.

According to authorities, Sambath got into his car and drove to a nearby house and fired a flurry of multiple shots from his handgun.

The witness told police she saw the victim take the shot from Sambath, who fired a volley of bullets towards a crowd of people outside the house.

Police reportedly found evidence of multiple shell casings in the street in front of the second home as well as bullet holes inside a front window, according to the court papers.

Sambath — who met with two Lansdale police detectives Nov. 20 at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Philadelphia — denied being in the Lansdale altercation, according to the court document.

It states that Sambath has been booked into the Philadelphia jail under the name John Sam, and that the suspect told the detectives he could not explain why he has two names.

A search of the Pennsylvania’s Unified Judicial Web portal turned up five active cases against John Sam — with a birthday listed as Jan. 2, 1993, the same as on the affidavit filed at the Lansdale court against Sambach — in Philadelphia. All five cases involve robbery and related charges.

Follow Bradley Schlegel on Twitter @BSchlegel1027.

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